[Yui]

After that spat with Yumiko, I was totes embarrassed when I saw him.

I mean, c'mon! I had fought with my friend in front of some uncool looking guy! Well, bad enough that someone saw us (no matter how simple the fight might have been), but it just had to be him of all people!

Ugh.

The first time I'd seen him in cram school (Soubu's all prestige and stuff, so that meant I really had to prepare for the entrance test!), I swore that I must've done like a dozen double takes. Dead fish eyes, messy hair, all slouchy and gloomy—he was the spitting image of the man in the photograph Mama had in her room. I mean, I've seen the picture ever since I was really young, so how was I going to take the fact that some guy who was the spitting image of Mama's ex-boyfriend (in college) just walks into the same room I was assigned to?

Mama had chosen to tell me all about Hikigaya-san (her "Darling," as she would affectionately call him) the first and last day I had ever seen him in person—the day he had finally taken that deadbeat blood father of mine out of our house, and our lives. Young as I was, he looked like some shifty-eyed guy who was out to trick Mama into doing something bad, and that had been my first impression. What surprised me during that time was how Mama was getting all flustered and red around him, like she wanted to melt into puddle then and there.

She told me how she used to date Hikigaya-san in college, and how she had been at her happiest back then. Mama didn't really tell me how they broke up, saying it was just a really complicated time, but the face she made while she said so was both worrying and really scary. After that, she told me that he was and always would be a good friend to her, and that one of these days she'd want to meet Hikigaya-san's son.

Who would've thought I'd have the prime opportunity to meet him myself?

As much as he looked like his dad (he looked just as shifty; was it the eyes?), he wasn't as lax as his disposition during breaks. When the tutorials were in session, his drive and focus were reaching levels of scary—as if he were one of those kids who were no prodigies, but would make do with sheer amounts of effort. Though students like him were no stranger to me, there was something about him that screamed all too different to me. I didn't know exactly what it was, but, maybe it's something my intuition could catch on to?

Well, that's basically what brought me to difficult place with Yumiko.

It was given that she was really interested and totes crushing on Hayama-kun, and as her friend I decided that I'd do my best to support her, while I tackled the mystery that was Hikigaya… kun. What didn't help, however, was the fact that Hikigaya-kun was seated all the way back, and Hayama-kun right in front of him. And Yumiko totally got the wrong idea whenever I would look behind me to sneak a glance at Hikigaya-kun, thinking that I was trying to sneak looks at the guy she was crushing on.

It was an honestly simple, yet dumb, misunderstanding. At this point, it would be hard to get Yumiko to talk with me; stubborn as she is.

Ugh, why did everything have to be so complicated!?

[Hachiman]

Beware the fury of a patient man. [1]

It's obvious enough to say that every individual possessed a breaking point—the boundary that separates capability for logical assessment of a distressful situation and the instinctual need to beat the crap out of everything within vision; both direct and peripheral..

Now, I wouldn't say that the tolerance for pushing my buttons were nigh saint-like, but I can confidently say that I had patience in spades. I knew how to wait, and I knew how to hold my emotions back as simple as breathing. Then again, it comes from hours and hours of practice—especially now that my middle school class was becoming a hotbed for rumor-mongers and bullies alike, the regimen to train my patience has become rather rigorous.

The current situation was nothing I couldn't handle, but it was definitely something testing the limits of my good nature (or what remained of it). If there was one thing that rubbed me the wrong way, it was how some people could be so negligent of their forays into Japanese classic literature (or perhaps just literature in general). Surely, if normies have time to read bad fan fictions online to satiate their tendencies for being a romantic junkie in order to let ships sail and watch others sink like the Titanic, would it be so much trouble to actually flip through actual art written to stand against the tests of time?

And, maybe—just maybe—if Yuigahama Yui could just put her damn phone down for one second to go through the study material, I would be able to hold a higher opinion of her.

Just a wee bit more.

Then again, perhaps the reason for this purposeful ignoring of my existence might be linked to the chance meeting that had occurred yesterday afternoon. As unintended as my intrusion was, Yuigahama knew I bore witness to what was a private matter—she saw me, after all; and, apparently, her impression of me was not so great.

Well, luck would have it that I similarly did not hold such a good impression of her.

Today's lectures have been tweaked a little, and instead of the usual classroom method of teaching, students were paired off to conduct self-studying by themselves. The pairings were decided through the previous Classic Literature test—of the pair, one would have scored higher, the other would be possessing a score lower.

It was quite an ego boost to know that I had outranked Haya-something Haya-whatever in at least this subject—by a large margin, too! But having had a such a decent score in Classic Literature paved the way for me to be paired with the one student who actually had the lowest score.

If her phone had the solution to giving her decent grades, then perhaps she should've been paired off with it. Gee, I wonder how good of a teacher a phone would be.

As miffed as I was about the situation, it was the perfect opportunity to go ahead and see if Yuigahama possessed any redeeming qualities that would distinguish her from the standard normalfag classification. So far, first impressions were not as promising, but I would be damned if I had drawn any conclusion from such a half-assed basis.

Let it be known that Hachiman, our lord and savior, did not half-ass the more life-threatening situations.

".. Fiddling with your phone accomplishes nothing short of getting worse grades."

I kept my tone as neutral as possible, even if a bit of venom wanted to leak through. The words were enough to elicit a response, though—but it wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting. There was clear surprise on her face, and a bashful glint clouding her eyes.

"Ah! Sorry. I'm, um, just a little out of it."

Well, now that I thought about it, there was an absent look in her eyes earlier while she blasted away message after message. Could it be she's been…?

My eyes traveled over to the far side, well away from our table, and there I spotted Drill Princess drooling all over the notebook she was writing on while Haya-something prattled on about his notes.

Note: I may have been exaggerating for added emphasis. She wasn't really droo—no, wait, she actually was. For all I knew, she might as well have been the source of the Niagara Falls.

I turned back to Yuigahama, and found her with a tired look. Really, I can't understand their relationship dynamic—it's too weird and unknown for me to try and think about. Might even give me a headache, too.

"… You saw what happened, right? Yesterday, I mean." The question was rhetorical, but I bit anyway.

"And if I did?"

There was no denial, nor was there confirmation. It was a challenge posed in order to gauge her choice of action in my supposed meddling (it's a bit too late to say supposed, though). Of course, this was the perfect opportunity to parley, and hopefully get things moving along to speed as to my needed course.

"Um, well, I'd just like it if you can keep it to yourself." Oh? The phrasing was undoubtedly more of a request than a demand—quite surprising because this was definitely not what I expected from a headstrong-looking girl such as her.

Then again, I could be wrong; she might have only said it as a request because she's already realized how bad her current position was, and that she would be unable to make any sort of demand. Maybe Yuigahama was actually an idiot savant—completely useless in academics, but utterly prodigious in reading people.

But when I look at her Literature scores, I'm less inclined to believe such a thing.

"Alright, I won't tell a soul." Yuigahama perked up at that. Too bad, Gahama-chan, but that joy's only for a split second.

"In exchange for a favor, that is."

It was comical how her face shifted from elation to a frown, and then one of disgust. "I-It won't be anything s-strange, right?"

Oi, whatever it is you're thinking I'll make you do, my brain's definitely not the one in the gutter!

"Of course not. Get your head out of the gutter, woman." Her response was to look embarrassed and glance away, much to my irritation.

"… What kind of favor, then?" I sighed. This girl… After a moment of getting my head on straight, I told her what I had in mind for our secret-for-a-secret.

Her flustered response raised all sorts of mixed signals.

From what amount of information I could gather from Yuigahama, making any sort of direct contact with Miura Yumiko would prove to be difficult (and dangerous to my body).

Underneath her facade of a lovestruck, middle-school girl was a sharp-tongued, violent, and temperamental beast. Well, no real shocker here—every girl might as well have one buried deep within their hearts; the only difference here is that Miura apparently was much more in-sync with this abyss-lurking leviathan.

The small glimpse into Miura's normal self was quite bland from my standpoint, but definitely not Yuigahama's. Assertive, blunt, fussy over her friends, unwilling to let people get close to her hurt—these were but from Yuigahama's experience, and as much as these were enlightening, it was bad practice to judge through the eyes of just one person, and a friend at that.

Accuracy aside, what I was looking for was something worth exploiting in Miura—an emotion, an attitude, a nervous tic, habit, or something along those lines—that would prove to be the easiest bait to use to clear up the misunderstanding between her and Yuigahama. It didn't have to be complicated; sometimes, even the simplest of solutions proved to be the most elegant.

Apart from having such a learning experience concerning the drill-haired girl, I also came to learn a bit more about the existence that was Yuigahama Yui.

As airheaded as she was, she was no idiot when it came to people. She came to see the lighter side of the spectrum, and from the way she smiled and talked you'd know she was one of those individuals who saw the glass half full. The way she told me of Miura hinted at just how she cherished their friendship, how she looked up to Miura's ability to be blunt and aggressive on the things she desired.

From our short interactions, as much as the many normalfag-tendencies she had irked me, they weren't being done for the sake of appearing trendy, hip, or popular. She simply did them because she had always done them—to her, there was purpose and use; as simple as that. She held no notions of popularity or staying with the trend because it was famous. She simple did so because she liked them, and found herself contented with such things.

Her capacity for kindness also astounds me. No matter how sparse our little "strategic meetings" were, she had noticed my penchant for a certain canned drink, and as such brought them whenever we had a talk—one for me, and one for her (although, she admitted they were a little too sweet for her taste). I tried paying her once, and it didn't end so well.

If this went on, I might end up hating myself more for what I was about to do...

"Was it really necessary to do what you did earlier?"

I threw a glance to my side and found that Yuigahama still hasn't touched her ramen. Seriously, that wasn't a good sign—this ramen was of top-quality preparation, and if someone didn't dig into it despite the aroma that wafted from the warm bowl, then they had something wrong with them.

I gave Yuigahama an apologetic look. "Sorry, but it was necessary. If you wanted to clear the air with Miura on your terms, then we have to be the ones to set the whole thing up." It was paradoxical how we needed Miura jealous and annoyed in order to diffuse such emotions from her.

What I wanted was to have Miura approach Yuigahama in a situation where their current argument was non-existent—a scenario where Miura would have no choice but to accept the flow of conversation, not be the one to control it. If Yuigahama wanted the misunderstanding as clear as possible, she has to be the one to have power over how she wanted it discussed over.

The problem with arguments like this was that when both parties would already be willing to share their apologies to the other and clear the air, some measure of power would always be given over to whomever was the offended party. If, perchance, Miura was the one in control of their discussion during such a time, chances were that after the exchange of apologies, her pride would dictate that she in fact did nothing wrong, and that some semblance of blame was still on Yuigahama's side for being the cause of the spat in the first place.

What Yuigahama needed here was a position in which her version of the story was to be the accepted one (well, because it was, in fact, the truth). Even if the goal truly was to fix their relationship, some kind of aftereffects were to be expected. One such aftereffect I wanted to appear was for Miura to gain some measure of acknowledgment that her perspective on things are not always just supposed to be the basis of decisions and actions.

"But, it looked like she got angrier at me." The mortified look on her face sent a stab of guilt through me, although it's not so apparent on the outside.

One thing I'm coming to terms with was that for a girl as wholly a normie, Yuigahama Yui wasn't just a Nice Girl for the sake of outside appearances. Though scant my experiences with her were, a slow unfolding was showing me that she was nice for the sake of it—her concern was every bit genuine, and her smiles hid no such ulterior motives. As enthusiastic as I was with the results of my little experiment, there was a hint of fear as to how she would treat me after everything was said and done.

Well, I'm expecting rejection and disgust, but the real thing would probably be a bit worse than the whole ordeal with Orimoto.

"Her anger's a small price to pay for the eventual making up that I guarantee. Don't beat yourself up about it."

"… But was it really needed I chatted a bit with Hayama-kun? He seems like a nice guy, but, there's something… off about him."

It would be in the near future that I get surprised as to how Yuigahama has seen through a bit of Haya-something's mask.

"Ugh, this is so difficult."

I have learned all that was needed of Miura, and I was confident that the next day was finally the day this would all come into fruition. The tools needed to be prepared were ready, and I had no qualms as to how Yuigahama would be performing the next day… if she were truly every bit as driven as she claimed she was, then there would be very minimal hiccups in the plan.

The only problem that remained was the actual confrontation. How the hell do I pull it off?

"Onii-chan, you're all frowny and stuff. What's the problem?"

Ah, adorable little Komachi showing concern over her big brother. Such a wonderful sister you are! You've scored a ton of Komachi points!

"… Onii-chan's just trying to think of how people make up after an argument."

As painful as it was to admit, I possessed a severe lack in the "friendship" department, in which follows all other associated experiences and knowledge.

Komachi gave me a curious look. "Oh? You have friends now, onii-chan?"

Please don't look at me with such eyes. I'm gonna cry, you know? "Well, let's just say I know someone who's asking me for help about making up with their friend."

"Well, they just have to apologize to one another, don't they? All my friends do so."

If the world was as simple as that, then perhaps a lot of the things that have happened in history would never have occurred—all the tragedies that befell mankind due to conflict averted and prevented. However, the world isn't as naive as such, and only a handful of individuals can come to know the importance and simplicity of such an innocent act.

"Sometimes, Komachi, the world isn't as… simple as that. Remember the last time Mom and Dad fought?"

"Oh, I remember! That was when Dad had to sleep in a hotel by himself for a week, right? Mom only let him back in the house after he apologized for an hour straight outside the house."

What a frightening woman my mother is. I wonder, what beast lurks beneath the depths of her soul to be so fear-striking?

"But, you know, onii-chan. Sometimes friends end up saying sorry to each other after some kind of trouble between them happens, too."

Eh? Didn't that sound like a double negative? "Just what did you mean, Komachi?"

"Weeeeell, last time I fought with Kana-chan, I remember her getting really sick. She was out of school for two days, so I decided to go visit her, 'cause she was a great friend and I couldn't help worrying."

What a wonderful little sister this creature was. But, I digress.

"So I went to her house, and we ended up saying sorry to each other—but! She confessed that she faked getting sick, y'know!"

What.

"She totally did! But when I found out it was so she could let me forget being angry even for just a little bit so we could talk, I realized that she just wanted us to stay friends, y'know. It was totally touching for Komachi."

Lies. Deceit. Falsifications.

As much as they were tools of those who looked to be concerned only for themselves, they were also tools that could be utilized for the greater good of others, and of those in certain situations. When there were times that the truth was so painful, sometimes the lies said to comfort one help distract us from the agony, and serve to be a path to the truth after everything has numbed.

I hated lies. But sometimes they had to be done. And so I had to do them, and I end up hating myself a little more.

Little sister, your friend's a devious one.

"Komachi, you just gave onii-chan a great idea. You get lots of points for this."

"Eh? Points?"

"Does it really have to be like this?"

I gave her a grim nod. There were other ways, but this was the most necessary—both for her, and for the sake of my own ulterior motives.

Shit, Yuigahama's going to hate me by the end of this. Guaranteed.

By this point in time, Miura should have already received the messages; one, courtesy of Yuigahama; another, courtesy of me.

We were in one of the lesser occupied hallways within the cram school's facility. Right behind me was the fire exit, and to mine and Yuigahama's right was a view to the outside.

This was it. Do or die. Time to take position.

"Yuigahama."

"Y-Yes!?"

I backed her up against the wall, trapping both sides of escape with my arms as they pressed against the wall. A coldness crept up my spine, and my vision swam back to the moment I had seen the real Orimoto for the first time.

"Wait, what are you—you d-didn't say anything about t-this!"

Indifference. Apathy. Fury. All these and more colored my vision, and where Yuigahama stood, I could see no one else but the girl who opened my eyes to the truth of relationships.

"H-Hey… You're s-scaring me..."

Her nerves were fraying, and her legs seemed like they were going to give out anytime. Exactly as I needed her to be.

"Yuigahama."

Her eyes were in a panic. I called out her name in order to start what would be a very painful (mostly on my part) conversation, but the way I spoke was far colder than I had expected.

But it was necessary.

Get a grip, Hachiman.

"Did you ever stop to think why I'd just help you like that? Being a stranger and all?"

She shook her head ever so slightly. Tears were pooling by the sides of her eyes. I started to feel like an even bigger piece of shit.

"Because I saw an opportunity. A chance to see if there were people out there who could prove my notions of truthfulness among people."

I was ranting at this point, like some B-class movie villain spilling his plans to the heroine as she waited for her rescuer.

"This was all a test. A ruse. You've been a guinea pig right from the start. I wanted to see how real you could get."

The tears were already falling past her cheeks, and the shuddering of her quick breaths nearly gave me pause for a second—but onward I fared. The point of no return has long been crossed.

I'm sorry for deceiving a girl as nice as you.

"And you delivered. Congrats for that, I suppose."

I'm so sorry for being a trash of a human being.

"The test is far from over, however. I still need to see one more thing from you."

I'm sorry for taking advantage of you like this.

"W-What is it?"

"Get your hands off of Yui, punk!"

A gut-wrenching pain turns my vision white, and the last I scene I could remember before passing out on the floor was of Yuigahama getting dragged off by a furious Miura.

Well. Mission accomplished, I guess.

[1] A line from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.

Not a lot of references for this chapter.

This A/N will be short. I admit, the chapter is confusing as hell (well, we'll see from your reactions), but that was because I split it in half—the second half would be Yuigahama's POV with all the events that had transpired (along with elaboration on the stuff that was not mentioned here) as a companion piece. Once the next chapter is up, along with the REAL resolution the arc, we'll finally be moving on to Soubu High and all the hijinks that will come along with it.

The semester has only ended, so I do have a bit of free time—however, I've only a week before summer classes start off this April. Don't worry, I plan to upload the next chapter much sooner than this one, as I already have the latter half which was split off this chapter in the works and being polished.

I won't be able to respond to each review from the previous chapter, but as a general note: thanks to everyone's support. You guys have been fantastic thus far, and the response has been fairly positive for this work; especially since this is my first written story. In all honesty, this was the first chapter I had written with much more difficulty, so feedback on this would be very appreciated. Cheers!

Read, review, and I'll see you next chapter.

* Updated 3/29/2017. Thumbs up to NirvanaFrk97 for spotting the inconsistency. I was half-dead when I was finishing this XD